Has the body positivity movement accomplished anything?

The body positivity movement has divided people

Question: Has the body positivity movement accomplished anything?
Position‹3 of 3: People who misunderstand the body positivity movement undermine their goals
Argument1 of 2›: The body positivity movement has divided people

Misunderstandings about the goals body positivity activists work towards leads to possible allies to turn against the movement.

The argument

When Adele's weight loss hit the news, suddenly everyone had an opinion on the matter. Headlines shouted how good she looks now, but some within the body positive community saw this change in a different light; among these were comments that they could no longer relate to the singer-songwriter. The episode is offered as a small illustration of a larger problem — a movement built on acceptance producing a public verdict on one woman's body. The body positivity movement is one which attempts to create a safe space for everyone to feel accepted. Yet judging others by their weight, or the steps they take to find what's right for them, either by gaining or losing weight, should go against the very principles they are fighting for. The inconsistency is not incidental. If the movement's claim is that a person's body is nobody else's business, then policing which changes are permitted reinstates exactly the scrutiny it set out to remove, only with a different set of approved outcomes. The core of the movement is certainly well-meaning, but there are people who use it as a platform to exclude others who maybe can't relate to the experiences they may have gone through, either because they are seen as "not fat enough" or more conventionally beautiful. Exclusion of that kind sorts people by how much hardship they can demonstrate, which is a strange criterion for a movement about acceptance, and it narrows the constituency at exactly the moment the movement is trying to widen it. This movement should be for everyone, and excluding people only minimizes the outreach and value of body positivity. On this account it is those who misunderstand the movement in this way, rather than its critics, who do most to undermine its goals.

Premises

[P1]The body positivity movement's core principle is to create a safe space where everyone feels accepted regardless of body or personal choices. [P2] Some adherents judge others for weight changes or for being 'not fat enough' or conventionally attractive, as seen in reactions to Adele's weight loss. [P3] Such exclusionary judgments contradict the movement's own principles and shrink its reach. [C] Therefore, people who misunderstand body positivity as exclusionary undermine the movement's goals.

Counter-arguments

The core of the movement still helps people worldwide in accepting themselves. Body positivity is a growing movement and it has had a visible positive impact on media and the advertising industry. It has a long way to go, but it is headed in the right direction.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The movement has more than one aim and the premise selects the most expansive. Much of it began as advocacy for people whose bodies are stigmatised, and on that reading it was never a general acceptance project applying equally to everyone. [Rejecting P2] The evidence is a set of reactions to one celebrity's weight loss. Online comment is a poor sample of a movement, and saying that one no longer relates to a public figure is not the same as judging her. [Rejecting P3] Disagreement over scope is what every movement has, and it does not follow that the goals are undermined. The changes in advertising and media representation continued straight through the episode described.